Under her moniker Sis and more recently, Sis and the Lower Wisdom, Jenny
Gillespie Mason spent more than a decade experimenting with pop, jazz and
synth-heavy electronic sounds and gear. After doing that for so long, she
finally felt the urge to drop the complicated setups, put down the
electronics, and pick up her acoustic guitar again, returning to the folk
genre she first fell in love with as a teenager.
This project came
together after Mason collaborated with producer Noah Georgeson, known for his
work with iconic folk artists such as Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, Vashti
Bunyan and Bert Jansch. Tracking live as a full ensemble in a private Los
Angeles studio, Georgeson and Mason brought a whole new cycle of songs into
existence. From those songs, here we have “Rungs of Love”.
The arrangement of this song is composed around Mason’s acoustic
guitar and vocals, supported by a skilled group of musicians like Josh Miner
Adams on percussion, Todd Dahlhoff on bass, Benny Bock on synthesisers, Gabe
Noel on cello, and Alex Budman on woodwinds.
Jenny made "Rungs of
Love" directly from Mirra Alfassa's writings about how love works. In her
teachings, love is a ladder with different steps. By climbing those rungs from
an ordinary, everyday human relationship into a selfless, spiritual devotion
to God, love adapts and grows strong enough to carry us through this world.